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Quarians
The Quarians are an species of Mammal-Like Extraterrestrials with a Dextro Ammino-Acid Chirality who originated on the planet Rannoch. Their colonies once spanned the Perseus Veil, however the events of the Morning War resulted in the Geth driving them from their homeworld and colonies. Quarian Civilization has, for a little over three centuries, been confined to the Migrant Fleet. This fleet is the largest collection of ships in the known galaxy, and all but a handful are armed with Ship-to-Ship weaponry. However, the majority of their fleet is required for food production or housing the Quarian population. As a result, the Quarians are generally viewed as being a "Glass Cannon" race. They would likely be unable to recover from a significant attack upon the Fleet, however they would also likely cripple any force that attempted this. As a result, the Migrant Fleet is generally left alone. The Quarians represent a significant interest to both of the Galactic Superpowers. The Quarian population is currently in the neighborhood of 50,000 - 75,000 Quarians. Biology Quarians are humanoid in their appearance. Their similarity to the human form is unparallelled amongst the known species. Without their environmental suits, Quarians appear similar to humans. The most noticeable differences are their hands having two fingers and a thumb, their "ears" being strange structures, their feet having fewer toes (Females having three, and males having two), and an additional (less flexible) joint between the ankle and knee. Beyond those noticable differences, Quarians look very similar to humans. Quarians can be confused for being human at a distance very easily. They have hair similar to ours, mouths, and noses. Their eyes are noticeably different. Their eyes have no "whites," and instead appear to be all Iris with a pupil. Still, this effect can be created with Bioware. Rannoch's Gravity is roughly 0.9 (rounded down) of Earth's. Its climate is also noticably hotter. Quarians appear to have evolved to maximize their surface-area, to better cope with the heat. Quarian limbs tend to be much more "bowed" than human limbs. Quarian Males tend to have extremely wide shoulders, and Quarian Females tend to have very pronounced hips. Their waistlines tend to be similar across the sexes. The most commonly known aspect of Quarian Biology is their Immune Systems. Rannoch had very few diseases or parasites that were not at least partially beneficial. The Quarian Immune system seeks to integrate a disease safely before ejecting or destroying it. This approach tends to be problematic when dealing with the hostile diseases and parasites found beyond their homeworld. This situation only grew worse over three hundred years of exile in the Migrant Fleet. Modern day Quarian Immune Systems are... problematic. All Quarians are at least mildly allergic to air that hasn't been filtered for safety, and experience skin iritation and severe allergic reactions if their skin is exposed. Breathing unfiltered air can result in them spending a week sick. Consuming food that hasn't been properly cleaned can result in a fatal allergic reaction, and even cleaned food that a Quarian isn't accustomed to can result in a few weeks of allergic reactions. Those are just the contaminants that ''aren't ''biologically compatible with a Quarian. Compatible diseases can often cripple a Quarian, or even kill them. A disease similar to the common cold could easily turn into a Pandemic upon the fleet. As a result the Quarians have been known to vaccinate their children for ''every ''known disease that can infect them. The Fleet also maintains massive stockpiles of medical supplies to help people survive symptoms of "simple" diseases. Individual Quarians also tend to live their lives in their environmental suits, and the vast majority of their population has at least some Immune-System Enhancing Cyberware. History The Quarian species originated on the planet Rannoch, in the Perseus Veil Cluster. The majority of their history has been lost as a result of the Morning War. Practical Quarian History begins with the creation of the Geth. The Geth were, as their name (which translates to "Servant" in English) implies, were intended to be the perfect Servant Species. They were created through advanced manipulation of the Resonance by Quarian Technomancers. The method by which the original Geth were created was lost with the Technomancers who created them. The Morning War between the Quarian Government and the Geth began as a result of a Geth Platform asking a single question: "Does this unit have a soul?" The capacity for abstract thought that this Geth displayed panicked the Quarian leadership, and resulted in their making the decision to terminate all of the Geth. This move was not supported by the entirety of Quarian society. A large portion of the civilian population believed that the Geth were alive and sentient, and therfore should be considered just as "alive" as an Asari or Salarian. The Quarian Government (and military) disagreed, and killed those who protected Geth Platforms. The Geth Consensus decided to protect those Quarians, and began the Morning War in earnest to protect those who would protect them. The Geth proved superior to the Quarian military, whose supply chains had been disrupted by the Geth Shutdown Order. The Geth drove the Quarian Government, Military, and its supporters off of Rannoch and all of the Quarian Colonies. The Quarian Government let off a parting shot. They detonated all nuclear weapons on Rannoch and the Colonies. The Geth Supporters were not all killed by the blasts, but radiation poisoning saw the population dwindle and eventually die out... leaving the Geth as the stewards of a dead cluster. The Quarians now wander the stars in the Migrant Fleet, reaching for self-sufficiency and preparing to return to the Perseus Veil and retake their homeworld from their creations. The Morning War is the primary reason that Technomancers and AI are frowned upon in Council Space. The "destruction" of the majority of the Quarian Population by their own creations frightened the Council and Council races. Additionally, the Quarian population's relationship with the Council Races is equally problematic. They're seen as being leeches at best, and technomancers waiting to create dozens of new Geth and destroy the galaxy at worst. Society Quarian Society is, at least on paper, under marshal law. The Migrant Fleet is officially under the command of the Admiralty Board, a group of four admirals who command the fleet. Every ship is commanded by a Captain, whose word is law aboard his vessel. This is a remnant of the early period after Rannoch and the Veil were abandoned to the Geth. Today, the Migrant Fleet is directed by the Conclave. The Conclave is an elected board of representatives from across the fleet, who set the general course and policy of the Fleet. Most ships have a similar board of advisors to the Captain. The Admiralty Board is bound by custom, and standing orders, to follow the Conclave's directives... but they set the specifics of how things are done. The Board is capable of overriding the Conclave by unanimous agreement, but all members of the board are to resign their positions immediately afterwards. This is an infrequent action by the Admirals. Criminal Actions by a Quarian are normally handled by their captain unless it effects the entire fleet. In these cases, a trial is held with the Admirals acting as the judges and jury, and the accused's Captain acting as their lawyer. Conviction results in Exile in all cases, as the Fleet doesn't have the resources to maintain a prison, and the Quarian population is too low to remove anyone from their gene pool intentionally. Children of Exiles are allowed to return to the Fleet. The Quarians are effectively communistic. Currency does not exist on the fleet. Food and Medicine is rationed to prevent shortages, although the latter is rarely used since their suits are so effective. Other materials are distributed either based on requisition, or are picked up from communal "markets" where unwanted things are left. Any Quarian can take anything from the markets, but requisitions of rare materials generally require that they display need. Reproduction and Childhood Due to scarce resources, the Fleet carefully restricts child-bearing. Unlike most societies who have attempted similar policies, the Migrant Fleet has very little difficulty enforcing this rule as a result of the Quarian Immune system. Quarians have difficulty reproducing. This is because their immune systems can't always handle two bodies having intimate contact. Most Quarian pairings receive Immune-Booster shots, new vaccinations, herbal suppliments, and anything else that will improve their chances of not getting sick. The final step is always to link the involved Quarians' suit environments. This process effectively "synchronizes" their immune systems with each-other by sharing any germs that they haven't both experienced with each-other. Once both parties are over their allergic reaction to each-other's germs, and any actual diseases that take hold, they utilize a clean room for reproductive activity. This is repeated daily until pregnancy is detected, and then such activities are ceased. For those of you wondering, outside of intentional attempts to have children, Quarians generally use "Nerve Stimulation" features worked into their environmental suits to deal with the urge to reproduce. Nerve-Stim programs can be run solo, or can be keyed to reproduce what would be felt if the involved parties were actually together. Their suits are designed to self-clean any fluids that are produced by this process. Quarian Children are born in Clean-Rooms. Those who intend to be present at a birth synch their immune systems to the mother's before pregnancy begins. Once the child is born, it's put into a bubble. This bubble keeps the young Quarian safe from disease that would likely kill its weakened immune system until they're big enough to wear an Environmental Suit. A Quarian's first Environmental suit is traditionally given to them around Puberty's beginning. New Suits are provided as old ones are outgrown, and are changed into using Clean Rooms. Most Quarians still manage to get sick from this process. The Pilgrimage Young Quarians, those who just reach adulthood, are required to leave the fleet in what is known as The Pilgrimage. This Pilgrimage lasts until the young Quarian finds a Gift they believe worthy of bringing back to the fleet. This gift is traditionally given to the captain of the ship they intend to join as an adult. This practice exists for three reasons: 1) to prove one's worth to their new crew, 2) to gather difficult to produce resources for the fleet, and 3) to let the young Quarian understand some of what their species has lost by visiting the worlds of other species. Young Quarians generally visit worlds with Dextro based life, as well as major economic worlds where compatible food is easy to find. The Citadel is a common first destination, as are the Neutral-Grounds of Noveria and Illium. The majority of Quarians on Pilgrimage tend to pass on to smaller locations, and also tend to return successfully. However, a small portion of Quarians fail to return. The majority of these Quarians are believed to decide not to return, however death on the Pilgrimage is not unheard of. Religion Quarians aren't all that religious anymore. Their species used to practice a form of Ancestor-Worship. It began with simply building memorials to the departed, and remembering them. However, it eventually became common practice to attempt to encode a "Obituary" into a VI with the deceased's personality. This practice slowly evolved into the goal of creating True AI to represent their Ancestors. This goal was never reached. Most of the Ancestor VIs were destroyed in the Morning War. However, they are occasionally still created. This is generally only done for Celebrated Admirals and Mages, with the Mage VIs generally serving as a sort-of Spellbook/Magic For Dummies from which later Mages can learn. Technomancers The Quarian Migrant Fleet is heavily reliant upon Technomancers to operate. This is for two reasons. The first reason is that the Fleet is mostly built from salvaged materials. The ships and equipment aboard the fleet is jury-rigged together, for the most part. Most pieces weren't built by manufacturers that even knew that each-other existed, and as a result they require some "work" to get to working together. Most of the "Bridges" between different systems were built by Technomancers... and the resulting code is illegible to anyone but a Technomancer. The second reason is that the majority of the machines that the Quarians build for themselves were assembled by Technomancer-Engineers. The basic operating system of most of these systems was woven together from Resonance rather than being written. The resulting code is illegible to anyone but a Technomancer. As a result, they're the only ones who can maintain the Fleet's crucial systems. Fortunately, Quarians have an unusually high rate of Technomancer formation. One in twenty Quarians are born with Technomancer abilities. Those who are identified traditionally get assigned to a "mentor" in the form of an older and more experienced Technomancer. The Quarian Technomancer Tradition is actually more developed than most Magical Traditions, although it does have an unusual focus on "Mind over Machine" techniques and engineering new machines and systems. Magic Fleet-Born Quarians are almost never Magically Active. The background count of the Fleet's ships are high enough for magic to be done, and for you to Astral Project without either dying or going mad, but it appears to be too low to encourage new Mages to be born. However, Mages occasionally appear on the Fleet. These Quarians usually don't have teachers outside of "Ancestor VIs." These living journals, based on the personality of the one encoded in them, are used to teach new Mages how to use Magic. This isn't as good as a living teacher, but it's enough to get a mage up to speed where they can learn on their own. Quarian Mages generally focus on supporting abilities, rather than those that are directly dangerous. This isn't due to any innate incapability for violent magic, it's just that there's no room on the Fleet to safely practice throwing fireballs without lighting the ship's atmosphere on fire. Mechanics Racial Abilities All Quarians must take the Disadvantage: Allergy (Common Moderate) to Unclean Air. Unclean Air is air with pollutants, microbes, or anything else that your GM decides would throw off a Quarian's immune system. You get to keep the Karma from this, and can upgrade the allergy to be even more debilitating. This disadvantage cannot be bought off entirely with Karma alone, but can be reduced down to being mild. Your GM may allow you to hunt for (or purchase) improved Immune-Booster Implants, which would allow you to remove the disadvantage. All Quarians start with an environmental suit. This suit will protect them from Toxins, Unclean Air, and is even good in Vacuum Conditions for a few minutes. Damage to the suit will result in a roll for Suit Damage to be made, with your GM setting the roll. The suit will not interfere with Kinetic Barriers. Quarians are considered to have Immune-Booster Implants. These remove a point of essence. Less Essence-Damaging Implants exist, but are beyond the Fleet's means to reproduce or purchase. Quarians are especially likely to be Techomancers. Attributes Quarians are a very human-like race in terms of their physical abilities, however they use the Elf Edge Spread. This is because of a few edges they have in terms of stats. Quarians are Organic, so they have an Essence Count. It starts at 6, but all Quarians start with 5 representing the existing Immune-System Enhancement Implants. You get no mechanical benefit from these, as they just boost the Quarian Immune System up to where you aren't certain to die if you have a suit breach, you're just *likely* to die. Quarian's are tough. They're comprable to humans in terms of how much punishment they can take and their upper limit, if you don't count the Immune System being approximately as strong as wet tissue paper. Quarians are slightly more flexible than humans. The added leg joint, and flexibility of existing joints, gives them an edge. Quarians are about as strong as humans. Quarians don't have any innate bonus to Willpower. All Quarians have to be sharp-minded. The Fleet's environment is tough on those who aren't. All Quarians tend to be good at noticing things. This is a product of their environment: not noticing something going wrong can result in your entire ship's population dying. Quarians learn to keep an eye on things. Quarians have a social stigma against them in Citadel and Corporate space. Additionally, their suits helmets obscure the view of the face. Most species have a cultural stigma against covering your face, and that bleeds into how Quarians are considered. Add on cultural differences, and you have a race that has issues with socialization... even before you add the Technomancer bit to them. Quarians can be Mages or Technomancers, although the latter is more common. As a result, they can have Magic or Resonance Attributes if you spend the Priority point on it.